(Mt. Vernon, Ala.) Oct 15 -
Two people are dead tonight after authorities say a woman was shot by her husband then he turned the gun on himself. Deputies say Dana Byrd was shot 3 times. Her husband, Gilberto Manguia was shot once. It all happened this morning on Soshee Road, which is in Mount Vernon in North Mobile County. As Local 15 News reports, family members of the dead couple are in shock.It's hard for family members to believe 29 year old Dana Byrd and her 31 year old husband, Gilberto Manguia are gone. "It made me sick to my stomach...I got weak in the knees." Both of them found shot to death in their own front yard. Dana's cousin, Jimmy Byrd lives in the same neighborhood, right behind the couple. He tells me he heard gunshots and then ran outside; but says he wasn't prepared for what he was about to see. Byrd says, "She was face down and he was on his back and i saw a weapon beside her laying parallel to her body."
And also lying next to Dana was her husband of 5 years. Deputies say the gun found next to them was a rifle. "I honestly don't believe either one of them would've done that to each other, they weren't those types of people."
Manguia's cousin Michelle Merritt says the two would occasionally argue, but it never turned violent. "Something like this would not have happened...we truly believe there was someone else who knows something." Family members tell Local 15 that Dana was on her way back from dropping her 4 year old son off at school, but when she pulled up in the driveway, she never made it inside." Now, leaving their 4 year old son without a mother and father. "Yeah, I hate it for him that’s the bad part about it...be raised without a mother and a father."
Deputies tell us the 4 year old son was at school at the time of the shootings. Autopsies will be performed tomorrow.
